Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of the Rebuplic of Turkey said, the "Art Exhibition for the Future Stars" organized by Ibn Haldun University, will provide significant contributions to the future of Turkish civilization as well as supporting the University's education mission. President Erdoğan attended the closing ceremony of the "Art Exhibition for the Future Stars" organized by Ibn Haldun University at Haliç Congress Center. Speaking at the ceremony President Erdoğan praised the executive directors and the members of the board of trustees of Ibn Haldun University who contributed in organized the exhibition. "Our exhibition will provide significant contributions to the future of our civilization as well as supporting the educational mission of Ibn Haldun University." President Erdoğan added. In addition to President Erdogan, Professor İrfan Gündüz, the President of the Board of Trustees of Ibn Haldun University, Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hümeyra Şahin, Member of the Board of Trustees, Professor Recep Şentürk, the President of Ibn Haldun University, Dr. Fatmanur Altun Chairman of the Board of Directors of TÜRGEV, businessmen and philanthropists attended to the closing ceremony. President Erdoğan praised the presentation made by Professor Halil Berktay, the Head of Department of History at Ibn Haldun University, about a new financing model for endowment universities and said "The presentation taking the world's best and most prestigious universities as an example to show where we are, and what we should do to reach to that level was very well prepared."
President Erdoğan emphasized that the exhibition will bring up new thinkers annd new artists. President said: "The eye-catching beauty, diversity and delicacy we have witnessed on the exhibition are only a small reflection of our deeply rooted accumulation as a nation. These features are intertwined with aesthetics, practicality, simplicity with splendor, modesty situated right next to nobility. From the miniature of architecture, from gilding to marbling art, from woodwork to engraving these are the description of the Turkish tradition of Islamic arts. " President Erdogan continued as follows, "In the eyes of Muslims, art is the expression of the excitement, majesty, pleasure and taste towards the beauty of Allah. In our belief, art is the journey of exploring and discovering divine beauty of the creations. Because Allah has created everything in the most beautiful form, has sent down the most beautiful words, sent a messenger as a good example, and requested to be asked with his beautiful names in Dua. The creatures that he created with the love of Mevlâ has been ornamented with his beautiful names and adjectives, has been decorated and has been perfected so that there will be no flaws. The key we need to make sense of Islamic art is the “Tejelli” manifestation concept. So what is manifestation? The manifestation is the reflection of beautiful characteristics of Allah on the life and the creatures. Transfiguration is the axis over which Allah created the attribute of art. We define the artist as the one who can see this manifestation with the grace of Allah and can shape and form it."
President Erdoğan pointed out that the Ottomans had always enjoyed their art intertwined life, President Erdoğan said that some of the ideological fanaticism in Turkey tries to show the Ottoman period different from its reality stating, "as we have seen here many works of art in ancient societies are inherited process in the very notion of life. Unfortunately, a part of our obsessive country is trying to show that the Ottoman period is different from this perspective. These groups claim that the Ottomans in particular, and the Islamic societies in general, do not value art and artists. Like the person at the head of the main opposition, we come across with those who reveal their ignorance, from time to time they grapple with me in order to criticize the Ottomans. They also reveal ideological bigotry when it comes to history and civilization. They think our nation is ignorant as they are. Because they are nothing in history, when the subject is art and artists they constantly take West and Western countries as a reference point. However, the fact is that it is completely different from the way marginal ideologists and observers from eye of the horse try to reflect. Both the Prophet and the Islamic states, and our ancestors have shown great care of people of the art."
President Erdoğan said artists need to do a lot more to fulfill the needs of Turkey in terms of arts and they should looks for ways of bringing tradition to future by putting the understanding that disregards and and despises the ancestry inheritance to one side. "We will not look at each other as enemies, we will look at each other as a complementary to each other. It is very important that our universities and our business world support arts with our state. Ibn Haldun, who combines arts with education, is a very important step taken in this direction. We want this project to be successful and the philanthropy education should be adapted in our country at the same time like in the Western countries." he added. President Erdogan, also called businessmen, to support the rise of Turkey in the field of education and culture. "I hereby call the businessmen to put a birck in building new Turkey." he said. Chairman of the Board of Trustees Professor İrfan Gündüz said that Ibn Haldun University is not a common but a unique university that is oriented towards the field of social sciences. Professor Gündüz said, "Our civilization is the civilization of sharing and solidarity. This is one of the main reasons for the emergence of Ibn Haldun University, resurrection of our civilization values, walking toward the future by making up our days."
Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan, the vice chairman of the board of trustees stressed that Ibn Haldun University is on an ambitious journey, "Ibn Haldun University with its vision and mission aims to be an unprecedented university both in Turkey and the world and in this respect it will bring a new breath to the world." Thanking President Erdogan for his personal collection contribution, Ibn Haldun University President Prof. Dr. Recep Senturk said, "Various collectors and artists who do not want to be mentioned have donated these works of art and I offer them my gratitude separately." Professor Şentürk, said they had two reason to organize the exhibition. "Firstly, to introduce our classical Turkish and Islamic arts more and secondly to provide support to our university." he added. Professor Halil Berktay, the Head of Department of History at Ibn Haldun University has also made a presentation on the new financing model of funding universities. Professor Berktay explained the financing models applied in the world, especially in the USA. He noted that the financing model used in funding universities in the USA was applied during the Ottoman period. Berktay stated that, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other famous universities in the world, used the very same method and they had become a success. Professor Berktay has also evaluated how this model, applied in the Ottoman Empire, could be adapted in Turkey.
